March 22, 2024 Staff and Community Update: Fast Forward Update From Superintendent Myriam Rogers
Dear Team BCPS—
Over the last nine months, we have worked relentlessly to engage and empower Team BCPS and to deliver on the promise to fast forward student achievement and move our system forward. We have held 17 community engagement meetings where hundreds of staff, students, families, and stakeholders have come together to share strategic ideas and solutions. We continue to collaborate with our five employee associations and all cabinet members, and hold regular, multi-stakeholder advisories to gather input. As we move into spring break, I wanted to take a moment to review our efforts in our four system priority areas—academic achievement, infrastructure, safety and climate, and highly effective teachers, leaders, and staff. By strategically targeting resources, investments, and support in these critical areas, we will excel as a system and build an innovative and collaborative learning community where all students reach their highest potential.
Academic Achievement
Focused, data-driven, research based, instructionally sound resources, practices, and tools that build teacher capacity, promote high levels of learning, and increase student achievement.
- Elementary schools are implementing the new English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum this school year. We believe that the high-quality evidence based HMH Into Reading ELA curriculum is key to raising student achievement in literacy and we are encouraged by the preliminary results that we are seeing across schools.
- By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, all Pre-K to Grade 3 teachers and administrators will have been trained in the Science of Reading to improve students' early literacy skills acquisition, support striving readers, and increase overall reading proficiency.
- To support the implementation of HMH Into Reading, teachers and administrators have participated in job-embedded coaching cycles. All elementary schools (110) completed the first round, and 42 elementary schools completed the second round (completion scheduled for June). All principals participated in leadership learning walks during the first semester and will participate in a second opportunity in the spring to enhance their ability to provide feedback and coaching to their staff.
- To foster collaboration in grade-level teams, the ELA office facilitates regular Teacher Leader professional learning communities focused on sharing best practices, resources, and strategies for implementing HMH Into Reading and 109 elementary schools have participated in these multiple opportunities this school year.
- Students who frequently utilized Amira, an interactive online reading tutor that is a critical component of the HMH curriculum, grew an average of 11 percentile points from their Fall (BOY) to Winter (MOY) on the Benchmark measure of Oral Reading Fluency.
- We are continuing our implementation of Bridges and Illustrative Math curricula. 83 percent of BCPS elementary teachers (and 91 percent of school-based Math resource teachers) and 74.8 percent of secondary teachers agree that Bridges and Illustrative Math curriculum align with CCR standards.
- We identified four areas as the focus of thoughtful professional learning. They include: Instructional Planning, Instructional Delivery, Student Learning Behaviors, and Data Literacy. Each area indicates a shift that we want to see in our current practice. Our long-range professional learning plan places each learning opportunity within one of these four areas. This support for schools is in-time, ongoing, intentional, and responsive.
- All schools have access to our TouchPoint learning support. This is in-time site-based assistance in response to a request from a building leader or member of the instructional leadership team. To date we have provided TouchPoint support to every middle and high school, and over 60 percent of our elementary schools.
- Math teachers at every grade level receive support with academic language in classrooms to help students articulate their mathematical thinking during instruction. Math Teacher Leader Corps provides learning opportunities during the school day with artifacts, and practices that can be used immediately.
- We are expanding access to high-quality, full-day Prekindergarten for eligible three-and four-year old children in BCPS. In January, we opened full-day programs at Lyons Mill and Dogwood elementary schools. A child’s early years are the most critical for development and set the foundation for lifelong learning and achievement. We believe that investments in early childhood education will mean a more level playing field and more equitable opportunities for children to succeed.
- BCPS is committed to providing a high-quality English Language Development (ELD) program for all Multilingual Learners (MLs) at their home schools to increase their access to the academic and extracurricular programs in their school communities. In the first year of implementation, BCPS expanded from five to 12 middle schools, and from five to 11 high schools. In the second year of implementation the program for MLs will expand to 20 middle schools and 15 high schools, serving more than 3,000 students.
- Providing professional development to build the capacity of school teams to effectively support MLs, including Sheltered Observation Instruction Protocol (SIOP) professional development to more than 600 staff at Year 1 and Year 2 schools; ongoing professional development for more than 250 ELD teachers; and Trauma Informed Practices professional development for more than 400 school-based staff.
- We unveiled a new Special Education Strategic Roadmap for fiscal years 2024-2026. This comprehensive strategic plan identifies new priorities and performance measures that will transform the way BCPS provides special education services and ensure that students and families have a range of comprehensive supports and resources for growth and achievement.
Safety and Climate
Clear expectations, consistent responses and shared accountability will protect and preserve safe learning environments.
- We launched a comprehensive plan to combat chronic absenteeism and reduce barriers to school attendance. Our “Here for It” campaign is making a difference by promoting a culture of attendance and supporting school-based efforts to decrease the percentage of chronically absent students. During the 2022-2023 school year, BCPS had a chronic absenteeism rate of 34.69 percent. This school year, with the implementation of the campaign and reinvigorated efforts from school communities, we are seeing promising results. The percentage of students attending school consistently has increased significantly, while the percentage of students who are chronically absent has decreased to 26.67 percent. More than 60 percent of our students are attending school with consistency.
- New this year: all BCPS students receive free breakfast and lunch at school. No paperwork is required for students to access meal service in school.
- We have made significant investments in resources to support our students’ mental health and well-being. This year, new efforts include providing students with additional access to mental health resources via new partnerships with Talkspace and Cigna.
- We expanded our community schools program by 18 schools this year, which brings us to a total of 56 community schools in BCPS. A critical factor in addressing safety and climate and promoting positive, equitable outcomes is providing resources and wraparound supports to meet the growing needs of students and families. Community schools identify and fill the gaps where our students need more resources and support to ensure their personal and academic success. Community schools provide us with an opportunity to help all students feel safe in a positive climate focused on their success.
- We are leveraging new safety tools as part of our comprehensive approach to enhance school safety. This includes Omnilert, a weapons detection system that utilizes existing internal and external cameras to spot firearms. Omnilert will be deployed in all schools this school year.
- We expanded our Safety Assistant program this year and now have an elementary support model in place. We updated our Code of Conduct for students that provides an overview of discipline procedures and protocols including cell phone expectations, and the range of consequences students could face for violating various policies, regulations, and rules.
Highly effective teachers, leaders, and staff
Refining efforts to recruit and retain a highly effective and diverse teacher, support staff, and leadership workforce.
- We implemented a new compressed salary scale with an increased teacher starting salary that places BCPS second in the state. The new scale also standardizes step increases and increases career earnings, which will allow teachers to reach the top of the scale sooner.
- We are partnering with Baltimore County Government on a new Diverse Teacher Recruitment Scholarship: Growing Our Own for BCPS program. This $1 million grant program aims to support the efforts from BCPS in recruiting, training, and retention of BIPOC teachers and women in STEM fields by providing eligible individuals with scholarships supporting the costs of tuition, fees, and books.
- We provided incentives to new special education teachers and teachers who committed to working at select high needs schools.
- We created a teacher apprentice program that will specifically target current BCPS paraeducators who hold a bachelor’s degree to become professionally certified teachers. We also created a certification cohort for ESOL and Special Education teachers.
- We are implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLC) across schools and offices. A PLC is an ongoing process in which staff members work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students and staff they serve.
Infrastructure
Efficient, effective, responsive, and reliable systems that ensure smooth operations across Team BCPS.
- We have begun the Oracle Cloud ERP implementation project. The Oracle Cloud ERP will revolutionize our human resources and fiscal services processes and services and enhance overall system efficiency. This project will provide us with a modern and comprehensive system that will enable us to make data-driven decisions, streamline processes, and efficiently manage personnel and resources.
- We launched a countywide implementation of the new parent transportation app, BusWhere. BusWhere is a location tracking software that allows subscribers to see bus locations in real time on a mobile phone or computer. Subscribers may opt to receive notifications as the bus is approaching a designated bus stop or if there is a significant issue causing a delay.
- We are in the process of implementing an organization-wide project to convert our manual timekeeping and payroll process to a new UKG Ready timekeeping system.
These are just a few examples of our work to increase achievement for all students and build a world-class school system. I am appreciative of our hard-working staff members and their invaluable contributions to our continuous improvement efforts. We know there is much more work to be done to ensure that all 110,000 students are meeting their full potential and I want to thank the Board of Education for approving a $2.58 billion budget that will enable us to continue the critical work that is underway.
I invite you to join me at upcoming Community Conversations on April 3, 2024, and April 10, 2024, and at our Curriculum Night on April 30, 2024, to learn more about BCPS curriculum and system efforts to improve instruction in English language arts, mathematics, early childhood education, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and special education.
I remain committed to providing Team BCPS with regular updates on our progress as well as identified areas of improvement for our system. I wish you a safe and restful spring break. We look forward to seeing our students and staff when we return on April 2, 2024, for the final stretch of the 2024-2025 school year! Thank you for your partnership and support.
Regards,
Dr. Myriam Rogers
Superintendent